The American Majority Project Polling

Our review of a broad range of reputable polls on economic issues finds a big difference between the policy solutions that dominate the discussion among policymakers and media pundits and what the majority of average citizens would like to be brought to the forefront.

70% oppose cuts/changes to the Medicare system as described in the House Republican Budget.

49% support not reducing funds to Medicare.

53% believe replacing the current Medicare program with a voucher system in which retirees will receive vouchers to use to purchase subsidized insurance from private insurance companies for those 55 or older is totally or mostly unacceptable.

65% believe Medicare should remain as it is today, with a defined set of benefits for people over 65, rather than receiving vouchers to purchase private insurance with.

64% of those who support changing Medicare to a voucher program would oppose replacing Medicare as it is today with a voucher program if the cost of private insurance rises faster than the value of the vouchers, causing seniors to pay more of their own money for health insurance.

72% of one group of 512 participants favored raising taxes on people earning more than $1 million a year over cutting important programs once they received details on the impact of the budget cuts. That percentage had been 62% before receiving details of the cuts.

48% of a second group of 512 participants supported raising taxes in general over cutting programs once they received details on what programs would be cut, with 38% favoring the cuts. That percentage had been 41% in favor of higher taxes and 40% in favor of cuts before receiving details of the cuts.

63% believe it is totally or mostly acceptable to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for families earning over $250,000 per year.

64% believe it is totally or mostly unacceptable to cut the income tax rate for those earning over $372,000 a year from 35% to 25%

53% believe it is totally or mostly unacceptable to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% .

77% believe public employees who belong to a union and work for the state government, city government, or school districts should have the same right to bargain when it comes to their health care, pension and other benefits like those members of unions who work for private companies.

22% ranked "unemployment/jobs" as the most important problem facing the country, nearly twice as many as those who said the budget deficit or debt was most important (12%). (35% ranked "the economy in general" as the top problem.)

78% supported a five-year strategy to revive manufacturing in America that included ending tax breaks that reward moving jobs abroad, enforcing buy-America provisions on government spending, countering unfair trade and currency practices by China and others, and investing in domestic research and technology.

Polling Information

Bloomberg National Poll
Conducted by telephone March 8 to 11, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,002 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

CBS News/New York Times Poll
Conducted by telephone March 7 to 11, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,009 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

Gallup
Conducted by telephone Jan. 5 to 8, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,011 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

Harris Interactive
Conducted online Feb. 6 to 13, 2012, among a national sample of 2,056 adults. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, religion and household income were weighted where necessary. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

KPC Poll
Conducted by telephone March 1 to 4, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,015 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll
Conducted by telephone Feb. 13 to 19, 2012, among a nationally reprasentative sample of 1,519 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

Pew Research Center
Most of the analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted between March 1 to 4, 2012, among a national sample of 1,503 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

CNN/ORC
Conducted through interviews between Sept. 23 to 25, 2012, among a national sample of 1,010 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

The Washington Post/ABC News Poll
Conducted by telephone March 10 to 13, 2011, among a random national sample of 1,005 adults, including users of both landline and cellular phones.

Gallup Poll
January 14-16, 2011: Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 1,032 adults, aged 18+, living in the continental U.S., selected using random-digit dial sampling. May 5-8, 2011: Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 1,018 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., selected using random-digit-dial sampling.